Friday, 30 June 2017

Paramore (+ Bleached) @ Colston Hall, Bristol | 21.06.17

image via wreckmybrain

Once I turned eleven, I turned emo. I had discovered
alternative rock instead of complacently listening to whatever pop was on the
radio, and began the journey to become who I am now. Growing up, I was raised
around classic rock. But I never really found my footing with the rock music
forming around me. I became an avid fan of Green Day in 2004 through American Idiot, but it wasn’t until my
cousin blew my mind by making me watch the music channel Scuzz with him in
2007. Through that channel I found Paramore, which threw me on the path of
wanting to become Riot! era Hayley
Williams.

I took me ten years – ten
years – to finally see Paramore live. There were moments throughout those
ten years that I had opportunities to see them, but alas I was lacking income
from a job and could only rely so much on pocket money. That’s the perk of
becoming an adult, kids. You don’t need to ask to go to a gig, you can just go … providing you have enough money
from said job.And that’s what I did.
I made my way up to the Colston Hall in Bristol on the hottest day of the year
(35°c is not the sort of temperature you want to go to a gig in) with my best
friend and her boyfriend; both equally – if not more – obsessed with Paramore
than I was.

Paramore -- image via Lindsey Byrnes

It was an extremely surreal experience. It wasn’t until
Bleached finished their opening set that it dawned on me that I was actually
seeing Paramore. The eleven-year-old inside my head lit up and I lost it. Admittedly,
I hadn’t listened to After Laughter as
much as I would have liked to – but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the
songs from their newest record. If anything, it ruined listening to the studio
recording due to how good Paramore performed it live.

I don’t know what it is;
whether it’s the energy that Paramore execute on stage or the way they and the
crowd interact with each other; seeing them perform their music live is an
experience I’ll never forget. Especially with a band that was more a part of my
past rather than a current obsession. It’s safe to say that this gig rekindled
my love for them, and made me yearn for my emo days; the days where I discovered
bands like Foo Fighters and Paramore. I wish I could go back in time to eleven-year-old
me and tell myself that I would see all these bands from 16 onwards – I could
have done with knowing that rather than nearly crying every time my bands came
to perform in the UK and I couldn’t go.

Freely going to gigs on my own accord is also broadening my
musicscape through opening acts. I’ve been lucky enough that most of the gigs I’ve
been to, the opening acts are bands that I have been wanting to see for years
-- i.e. Noel Gallagher at The Who (I cried so hard, man) and Royal Blood &
Iggy Pop at Foo Fighters. On the rare occasion, I become a new fan of bands that
I’ve never heard of. Case in point, Bleached. Bleached have been opening for
Paramore throughout Tour One (Europe), and Best Coast will be supporting them
for Tour Two (North America) – a band that I am also dying to see.

I wasn’t expecting much from Bleached. I’ve been to two gigs
this year that had three support bands each, none of them blowing me away apart
from Vant at a You Me at Six gig. Only a minute into their first song ‘Waiting
by the Telephone’, I was sold. Their cover of Nivrana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’ near
the end of their set sealed the deal for me entirely. Bleached are part of a
genre that I’d only just begun discovering a few years ago – the alternative/garage/lo-fi
scene in California, following the same patterns as Wavves, Best Coast, FIDLAR and
Thee Oh Sees. All you have to do is listen to Vinewood Boulevard Radio on GTA V
to get a taster of that genre of music. It’s badass.

I would have been happy with just Bleached by themselves;
they did a fantastic job at setting the atmosphere for the crowd who were full
of anticipation for Paramore’s eventual arrival. As soon as they took the
stage, everyone got out of their seats. The gig was sold out, I only just
managed to get tickets for the three of us up in balcony, but that didn’t
affect our enjoyment of the gig at all. It was so intimate that being up in
balcony felt like being down in standing. Hayley spoke about this mid-way through
the gig; seeing familiar faces in the crowd that had been to multiple shows on
the tour and how she and the band enjoy the intimate gigs rather than the
arena/stadium ones as they are able to share their music closely with their
fans.

Bleached -- image via Nicole Anne Robins

Instead of writing a boring, lengthy paragraph of which
songs were the highlights of the show, I’ve put the setlists below with
annotations beneath them of my favourite performances (the ones with the
asterisks), alongside little notes as to why:

Bleached

1. Waiting by the Telephone ***

[Demonstration of harmonies. Aesthetic – Reminds me of Deap Vally’s new record and Best Coast. Surf/Lo-Fi/Garage rock]

2. Trying to Lose Myself Again *

[Love the drum beat and guitar riff – punk – and the first instrumental break. Reminds me of the sort of music on that GTA V radio station (with Wavves)]

3. Keep on Keepin’ On *

[Has the same sort of vibe. Underlying QOTSA and Brody Dalle vibes]

4. Can You Deal? *

[Trippy to stone to Alt. Rock. Love the lyric/vocal pattern.]

5. Sleepwalking

6. Wednesday Night Melody

7. Turn to Rage

8. Sour Candy

9. Territorial Pissings
(Nirvana cover)

10. Dead in Your Head

TBH – All the songs off ‘Welcome to the Worms’ (2016) are my favourite ones:

Can You Deal? Is their latest EP. Love the two tracks played (Can You Deal? and Turn to Rage) – so heavy.

Bleached opening for Paramore -- image via wreckmybrain

Paramore

1. Told
You So *

2.
That’s What You Get

3. Brick
by Boring Brick *

4.
Still Into You

5. Caught
in the Middle *

[Love the chorus. Vibe and the crowd singing along. Made it sound even bigger than it is on the record]

6. Turn
it Off *

[Again, the crowd]

7.
Decode

8. I
Caught Myself

[Both Decode
& I Caught Myself; didn’t expect them to play these. Both from the Twilight soundtrack.]

9. Hate
to See Your Heart Break

10. Fake
Happy *

[Dance song! Love the way this song builds – quiet/loud/quiet]

11. Everywhere
(Fleetwood Mac cover) *

[Really fits in with the aesthetic/genre of this record. Made my best friend laugh with my dancing lmao]

12.
Rose-Coloured Boy *

[The
intro chant. Love hearing everyone chanting back.]

13.
Playing God *

[One of
my favourite songs]

14.
Ain’t It Fun

15. Misery
Business *

[Chills. My anthem when I was 11. Singing it with them and fans. Also the two girls that were pulled up to sing and play guitar for the guitar solo and last chorus were immense]

Encore:

16. Forgiveness
*

[Like the chill beat of this one]

17. Scooby’s
in the Back (HalfNoise cover) *

[LOVE! One of the best songs of 2017 for sure]

18. Hard
Times *

[Apparently this is my favourite song of Paramore according to last.fm]

All in all, I am so glad I managed to get tickets for this
gig. If you can, I implore you to see Paramore live. Especially whilst they are
touring After Laughter. It may be a
departure from their original sound, but it shows how much the band can adapt,
change and evolve through the rock genre while still retaining their spirit and
love for music. If it were the other way around and they were still stuck with
the sound of Riot!, people would be
complaining that they lacked development. There’s no pleasing some people, it
seems. Especially in music.